The Water Contest
by JDP
Summary: The Cerulean Gym is having their own water contest! Both Misty and May are in it, but so is the jealous and sly Harley...


Foreword

bThe Water Contest/b

May walked through the streets of Cerulean City, heading towards the location of the next pokemon contest: the Cerulean Gym. She had been there about a week ago, just to drop by and say hello, and the idea of a water themed pokemon contest came to mind. Misty's sisters took to the idea almost immediately, and thus, a pokemon contest was to take place at the gym.

Now the time had come for the contest to take place in a few hours. The news got around rather quickly, and the gym was soon being surrounded by crowds of people who were anxious to either participate in the contest or watch it. When May got there, there was already a long line in front of the gym, people waiting their turn to get in.

Fortunately, that was just the audience, for there was a separate line just for the coordinators, so May could get in a lot faster and a lot easier. The line wasn't all that long, she had gotten here early, so it was only a couple minutes before she registered. At the desk was Misty's sister, the one with the blond hair - May forgot what her name was - and she recognized her immediately.

"May!" she said the instant she saw her. "I'm so glad you came last week. This pokemon contest was a great idea. We're getting a lot of publicity. I think there's more people here than when we do one of our ballet shows!"

"No problem," May said with a smile. "As a coordinator, contests are my life! The idea just came to me."

"Well," Daisy -May remembered her name just then- said, having finished working with May's contest pass and pokedex. "You're all set. Good luck in the contest."

"Thanks," May replied and then walked off to where all the other coordinators were. There were a lot of people, even more than those at other contests she had attended. Guess that's what happens when you have a specialized contest at one of the most famous gyms in the world.

She already had her pokemon picked out. She had two water pokemon now: her Squirtle, whom she obtained before she joined Ash at the Battle Frontier, and her newly evolved Vaporeon, whom she evolved from Eevee via water stone, just for this contest. Eevee had gladly agreed for the evolution, and May was glad. She could have evolved Eevee into six other forms, but Eevee was willing to become a Vaporeon to be in this contest. Vaporeon was her favorite of the Eevee evolutions anyways, the most graceful one of them all. Plus, she could utilize Vaporeon's abilities into regular contests as well. So it worked out well.

"May!" a familiar voice called out. Turning, May saw Misty coming up to her, wearing the yellow button shirt on top of a red shirt and yellow shorts that she'd always seen her wear(although in older pictures, she saw that she used to wear something entirely different).

"Hi Misty!" May greeted as the gym leader walked up towards her. "Are you ready for the contest?"

"I sure am!" the orange haired girl replied with a wink. "I just wish I didn't have to host it though..." When May had suggested the contest, Misty's sisters had wanted Misty to be the host of the contest, in honor of the Cerulean Gym, and because she was the most recognized and sort of the face of the gym itself. As usual, Misty protested her sister's ideas, wanting to be in the contest herself. So they came to a compromise. Misty was both host and a participant in the show. That seemed to present a problem, but since Misty wouldn't be a judge in the contest, that wouldn't affect any sort of decision during the contest. So both parties were satisified. "But it has given me some ideas on how to perform my act," she added.

"Well, that's good," May replied and then asked, "So what pokemon are you using?"

"Starmie for the appeal portion and Gyarados for the battles," Misty answered. "A water pokemon contest is just my element."

May giggled. "I would expect that from a water pokemon gym leader."

"Hey, do you know a trainer named Harley?" Misty asked. "I just met him a moment ago. He gave me some advice on how to perform better in the contest."

"Harley?" May responded, concerned. "He's here?" She looked around the room for the green suited trainer, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah." Misty saw May's concern and thus asked, "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Don't listen to him. The guy's a creep who tried to sabotage my contest performances several times."

"Really? He sure didn't seem like that kind of person."

"Trust me, he's not a nice guy."

"Well, thanks for the advice," Misty said. "I probably would have done badly if I had took his advice. Anyways, I've got to go get ready. I have to host and compete at the same time."

"Sounds like a challenge," May replied, smiling. "Can you do it?"

"I hope I can," Misty giggled. "I'll see you later in the contest." Misty left, as May walked around to see the other coordinators, briefly observing the competition.

It was finally time to begin! The crowd was all settled into their seats, and the judges were ready. Everyone watched as the pool lifted up out of the ground, allowing full view of the area underwater. The spotlight shined on the diving board that was situated above it, and in the light they saw a mermaid. It was the famous Misty Mermaid! She was the host for the contest, and she spoke to the audience into a microphone.

"Welcome to the first Water Pokemon Contest hosted by the Cerulean City Gym! We've got water pokemon trainers from all over here today, and I'm sure they're all willing to get right into the appeal portion of the contest. So let's get started!" After that last enthusiastic sentence, Misty turned and walked off the diving board, and the crowd cheered as the competitors came out after Misty introduced them, releasing their pokemon out of their pokeballs and into the pool where they performed beautiful moves.

Watching and judging the pokemon were the typical judges seen at each pokemon contest, sitting at a desk at the floor of the arena where they could clearly see the coordinators' every move. They then commented on the perfomance put forth before them, and jotted down their score. Some of the trainers merely stood up on the diving board and shouted their commands from there. Others, who were more bold, leapt into the water with their pokemon and swam about with their pokemon. That impressed the judges quite a bit. All the while, Misty was commenting on their actions. Such was the job of a contest host.

May came onto the diving board, wearing her red bikini, and threw her pokeball, releasing her Vaporeon. Both of them dived into the water simultaneously, and they started to do what a lot of the others did, swimming about like an underwater ballet, Vaporeon being more graceful than May, naturally. Vaporeon consistently vanished into the water with acid armor, and then surprised the audience by popping up out of nowhere, usually coordinated with May. May herself was doing the best she could to produce some sort of grace underwater, being quite overshadowed by Vaporeon. For a finale, Vaporeon spun around May rapidly, making a whirlpool, May twisting around in the center of it(after catching a breath of course), the frills on her bikini flapping in the moving water, and then Vaporeon shot an aurora beam into the whirlpool, which spun around May in a shining tornado of rainbow light, which disappated with sparkles of light. The audience loved it, and so did the judges.

A couple more performances later, it was Misty's turn, to the surprise of everyone in the audience. They weren't expecting their host to also participate. Misty was wearing her mermaid outfit for two reasons: the first was because it was part of her role as host, and the second was for her participation in the contest. She was good at underwater ballet, but she wasn't used to doing it in a regular bathing suit, so she decided to do it in her mermaid oufit. She had a pokeball in hand, and was about to throw it, just starting to say Starmie's name, when suddenly, another pokemon came out from another pokeball, from the bag that she had left back on the floor at the balcony.

"Psyduck!" Misty shouted at the dimwitted pokemon. "You're not supposed to be in this contest!"

"Psy!" the duck pokemon said, standing on the edge of the diving board, tilting his head at the audience, somewhat paralyzed by all the eyes watching him. Suddenly, he started to fall, waving his arms and shouting frantically. Misty lunged for him, but it was too late. The water pokemon fell to the water below, and, being the only water pokemon Misty had ever seen that was unable to swim, was struggling to stay above water.

"Well, it seems that Misty's Psyduck is having problems with swimming," Daisy said blandly, having taken Misty's place as the host when it was her turn.

"How embarassing..." Misty sighed, blushing and covering her face with one hand, barely peeking out at the audience through her fingers. Some were laughing, others were looking with some concern at the drowning pokemon. She looked down at Psyduck. She had to do something. "I'm coming Psyduck!" She put down Starmie's pokeball and leapt down into the water to save her pokemon.

After landing in the water, grabbing the pokemon and keeping him above water, Psyduck calmed down, sighing a heavy, "Psy..."

"Sorry Psyduck, but you can't be in this contest. You're not exactly the most beautiful water pokemon in th- hey, what's happening?" She was suddenly being lifted up into the air, yet she was still in the water. Looking down, she could see that the water had formed a jet stream beneath her, launching her and Psyduck into the air. She looked at Psyduck, and saw that his eyes were glowing.

"Amazing!" Daisy exclaimed, more enthusiastic than before. "It appears Psyduck is using a confusion attack to produce magnificent water spouts!"

"Well, this is unexpected..." Misty said to herself. "Since when can Psyduck use confusion without getting a headache? I'll figure it out later. Psyduck, create more water spouts!" Psyduck obeyed, and more water spouts appeared in the pool, rising high into the air. As a special twist, to Misty's surprise, the spouts all merged with the one they were on, creating a water form that looked somewhat like a round cage.

Misty stood up, letting go of Psyduck, as they both were well supported by the water that Psyduck was controlling, and waved to the audience. It seemed that Psyduck kind of knew what to do, so she just did her own thing. Leaping off of the spout, she dove back into the water. But she didn't land where she expected to land. Another spout came in front of her, and she landed in there. She was in a water tunnel hovering in midair by Psyduck's confusion attack. Seeing what Psyduck was doing, she went along with it, swimming down the tunnel through the air, doing ballet style dances. She reached the end of the tunnel, and leapt out, landing in another tunnel just outside of it.

The audience cheered wildly. It was something they've never seen before, and they were enjoying it.

"Wow..." Daisy said, not talking into the microphone. "Psyduck's actually pretty good at this stuff."

Misty swam through some more tunnels, leaping to each one, before she jumped out of the last one to be caught by yet another spout, propelling her up into the air. She was thrown up into the air, tumbling and shouting in surprise when she was caught by yet another one. Seeing what Psyduck had in mind, she leapt again and again, heading back to the diving board, being caught by water spout after water spout. She landed feet first on the diving board with a shout of joy just as Psyduck did so, eyes still aglow, and then the entire pool exploded with a vast array of fountains, creating a picturesque scene of fountains. The crowd went wild.

"You did it Psyduck!" she cried out, picking up the duck pokemon in her arms and hugging it. She thought it was going to be a total disaster, but it proved otherwise. It was even better than she had planned with Starmie! At this point, Psyduck's confusion attack was over, his eyes back to normal, and he was back to his normal clueless self, tilting his head like he always did.

The other contestants took their turns, and the first round was soon over. Now the judges had made their decision as to which eight coordinators were to enter the second round. The screen that had been set up on the wall soon showed those eight faces.

"I made it!" May exclaimed, seeing her face on the list. With all those great performances out there today, she thought she might not make it. But apparently she did. Misty was also on the list. That was expected. Psyduck's water fountains were magnificent! Harley had passed the first round, it seemed. He had acquired a new pokemon, a Lanturn, and it dazzled everyone with water and electric attack moves that were somewhat creepy, especially since he requested the pool to be darkened. So it was rather obvious he'd make it as well.

The list soon scrambled itself to make the matchups for the first round of battles. It seemed that both her and Misty were fighting some other trainers that she didn't recognize. She heard Misty announce that the next round would start momentarily, and she prepared for her battle.

The first battle round went by rather quickly, the winners making themselves prominent rapidly. Both Misty and May won their battles with relative ease, making their way to the first round. The two semifinal matchups were made. May would be fighting the other trainer whom she didn't know, and Misty would be fighting...Harley.

iHarley thinks he's so confident/i May thought when she saw the matchups. iLet's see if he can take on the Cerulean Gym Leader./i

Misty had changed back into her normal clothes, no longer needing to wear the mermaid outfit for battling, since the performance part was over. She was certain her sisters and the audience wouldn't mind. Her first round went smoothly, Gyarados having done a good job of defeating the other trainer, and she saw her opponent for the second battle round. Harley... She'd beat that creep, if not just to get him back for trying to sabotage her and May and whoever else he may have tricked.

May won her second battle, and now it was time for Harley and Misty's battle. Harley stood at one end of the pool, wearing his Cacturne-esque outfit, standing atop a platform that was set up high above the ground. He was looking at the other end of the pool, where the other platform sat, no one there. Misty wasn't there. The audience was clamoring, wondering where the gym leader had gone.

"Where'd she go?" May said to no one in particular. "It's her turn to battle."

Daisy spoke into the microphone, "It seems Misty has yet to make an apperance. If she doesn't show up soon, she'll forfeit the match and Harley will win by default."

"I guess the gym leader's too scared to take me on!" Harley taunted with a laugh.

"Something's wrong..." Daisy said to herself. "It's not like Misty to disappear before a battle..."

May bet Harley had something to do with this. After all, he's tried to win by default by keeping her from coming to the battle before. He probably did something to Misty. She set off to search for her, moving quickly. Wherever she was, she had to find her before she lost the match, without even being there!

She searched through the gym, asking some people along the way if they'd seen Misty anywhere. No one had, so she kept looking. While she was searching, she realized she was too late, for she heard over the P.A. that Harley won as Misty hadn't come. She growled to herself. That cheater! What did Harley do to her?

After several more minutes of searching, she decided to head into a section of the gym that was empty, the public restricted from coming down here. Maybe she was down here. As she walked down there, she heard a noise coming from a closed door, in a room which was labeled "Performers' Changing Room." Opening it, she saw the room was dark. But the light from the hallway illuminated the room a bit, and she found Misty, lying on the floor with her hands tied behind her back, her legs tied together, and a piece of cloth wrapped around her mouth, struggling and mumbling as she tried to get out. Immediately, she ungagged her and began to untie her.

"What happened?" May asked, although she already knew the answer.

"That creep Harley grabbed me and threw me in here!" Misty exclaimed. "You were right May. He is a jerk." She rubbed her wrists once May untied her, as they hurt from the rope and her struggling.

"C'mon," May said, having fully untied Misty. "Let's go explain what happened to the judges.." Misty stood up and the two of them left the room.

Harley was immediately disqualified for cheating once the judges found out what he did, but before anyone could tell him, he had mysteriously vanished. So no one could do anything about it.

Thus, Misty won by default instead of Harley -oh the irony- and she and May were both to battle each other in the final battle of the pokemon contest. The two of them were anxious as they got to their separate platforms on opposing sides of the pool, holding their pokeballs in their hands, and the referree started the battle.

"Squirtle, c'mon out!" May commanded, throwing her pokeball into the air. Her Squirtle spun around inside its shell as it phased out of the pokeball, doing a flip, and landing onto the little island that was in the pool with a shout.

"Gyarados, I choose you!" Misty's pokemon appeared underwater with a flash of light before rearing up out of the water with a roar.

May was the one who took the first move. "Squirtle," she ordered. "Use ice beam!" Opening its mouth, jagged blue beams shot forth from its mouth, heading straight towards the larger water pokemon, glitters of the blue light sprinkling down, creating a relatively beautiful yet powerful attack.

"Dive underwater!" Misty shouted to Gyarados, who promptly obeyed, diving under just as the ice beam froze the surface of the water where it just was.

"Squirtle, you go under as well!" With a shout, the turtle pokemon also dove into the water. The battle now beneath the surface, the audience had an easier time seeing what was going on, since the crystal clear tank allowed for all to see. The two water pokemon were facing each other now, Squirtle looking ridiculously small compared to the massive sea serpent, yet he didn't seem at all afraid.

Gyarados suddenly lunged at the smaller pokemon, but missed, Squirtle dodging it, but ended up spinning around due to the wake caused by the large pokemon swimming past it. Regaining its position, he swam right at Gyarados, slamming his head right into the large pokemon's side, the strength of his attack actually strong enough to knock Gyarados back a decent amount, stunning the sea dragon momentarily.

Recovering from the blow, Gyarados lunged upwards at the turtle, this time making a direct blow, launching the two of them upwards, and crashing through the ice that had been formed above them just moments ago.

May suddenly got an idea as she saw both of the pokemon falling in midair. Calling out to her pokemon, she said, "Use ice beam while spinning on the water Squirtle, quick!"

"Squirtle!" the pokemon affirmed, pulling into its shell. Out of all six openings in its shell, the blue beam of frozen energy scattered on the arena below, freezing the entire surface of the water, solidifying the entire battlefield. The ice was thick enough to withstand the weight of Gyarados as he crashed onto the cold ground. The ice was easily strong enough to hold the small Squirtle as he landed on the ground.

This would be tough. Gyarados wasn't as agile on land as he was in the water. Yet Misty wasn't about to give up. "Gyarados, use flamethrower!" she ordered, as the pokemon responded by releasing a burst of flames from its maw, which shot forward towards Squirtle.

"Dodge it by sliding on the ice with rapid spin!" May quickly told her pokemon. Sure enough, the water pokemon withdrew into its shell, and spun rapidly, sliding across the ice with lightning speed. The fire attack merely melted the ice where it just was, creating a gaping hole in the ice where Squirtle just was. May saw the opportunity to execute another plan. "Keep moving around Squirtle!" Still spinning very quickly, the turtle pokemon kept moving, moving around the sleek ice arena, reflecting off the walls and picking up speed.

Gyarados was utterly confused by the rapidly moving creature zipping around it. So was Misty. Squirtle was moving around really fast. She didn't know if Gyarados could catch it, especially on this ice. The large pokemon would be clumsy out of the water. But then she remembered that there was now a hole in the ice where the flamethrower had impacted.

"Gyarados, head for the hole in the ice and dive underwater!" Misty exclaimed. Gyarados did just that, sliding its serpentine body across the ice towards the water. But just as it was about to dive into it, Squirtle came ricocheting from its reflective movements and slammed directly into Gyarados, knocking it back sliding across the ice. Gyarados roared as it regained its composure, facing his opponent, who was now standing up.

Misty glanced up at the scoreboard, having forgotten all about them. She was running low on points. May's combinations were overshadowing hers, and the fact that Squirtle was doing more damage to Gyarados didn't help much either. She had lost almost half her points, while May pretty much had most of hers, adn there was less than two minutes left in the battle. If she didn't do something quick, May would win.

Putting her attention back to the battle, Misty said, "All right Gyarados, if they want us to fight on the ice, then we'll fight! Use hyper beam!" Roaring, the large pokemon shot out a beam of energy from its jaws, which broke open the ice that it impacted as it aimed straight towards Squirtle. Squirtle attempted to dodge, but he was a milisecond too late, as the explosion threw Squirtle into the air, the turtle sliding across the ice face first, flipping over a couple times in the process.

Gyarados had to rest for a moment, having used a hyper beam attack, which left him open to attack while Squirtle recovered.

"Squirtle, quick, use water gun, then use ice beam!" May ordered. With a grunt, Squirtle hopped back up on his feet, panting heavily a bit, but still willing to battle, and shot a stream of water from its mouth directly at Gyarados. Immediately afterwards, he shot an ice beam. Gyarados, unable to dodge the attack in time, was pushed back by the water, as it splattered all over its body. The ice beam then made contact, freezing the water that covered its body, holding it frozen solid in a cocoon of ice. That was mostly its face and upper body, however, as its tail was thrashing in an frusturation of trying to break the ice that encased its head.

Before Misty could call out an order, May told her Squirtle, "Okay Squirtle, slide across the ice and use headbutt!" Diving onto the slippery ice, Squirtle slid across the ice on his belly, picking up speed quickly and heading right for Gyarados, who was still trying to get the ice off of its body.

"Gyarados, slam your head on the ice!" Misty shouted, an idea having popped into her head. Obeying, the sea serpent did just so, crashing its head on the ground with all its might. It worked! The ice that had been frozen on his head cracked like an egg, freeing him from its grasp. The impact also broke the ice that he was standing on, jagged pieces of it jutting out in Squirtle's path, seemingly preventing it from reaching Gyarados.

However, that was not the case. The jagged pieces of ice only allowed Squirtle to launch himself into the air as if off a ramp, sending him crashing into Gyarados, once again throwing him back across the ice. Gyarados got back up with a groan. He'd be hit several times by Squirtle, which was causing him some damage. The two pokemon stared at each other, each awaiting for their trainers to give a command.

"Time's up!" Daisy shouted out of the blue. Sure enough, the battle had proceeded long enough for the timer to hit zero. The winner would be determined by the amount of points the trainers had, and the obvious winner was May, having at least 75 of her points while Misty had lost slightly more than half. "The winner of this battle, and of the Cerulean Water Contest is May!"

The two pokemon were returned to their pokeballs, and the two girls met with each other and shook hands.

"You put up a good fight May," Misty said. "You're just a better coordinator than I am."

"Hey, with some practice," May reassured her. "You could be an awesome coordinator as well."

"Thanks!" Misty said with a smile.

May was given a contest ribbon that looked a lot like the Cascade badge that the Cerulean Gym usually gave to trainers who won against the gym leader, except in ribbon form. Thus ended the very first Cerulean Gym Water Contest.

Later that night, Misty went over to the pokemon center where May was staying. She was there to see if May was coming over for dinner. Her sisters had invited her to their place, and she hadn't come yet. She was here to find out why.

"May?" she asked, knocking on the door to May's dorm. "Are you in there?" There was no response. She jiggled the door handle, and to her surprise, the door opened. The room was lit, which meant that she was in here. Either that, or she forgot to turn the light off, and she was somewhere else in the city. "May?" she asked again, walking into the room and looking around. "You here?" There was still no response. She shrugged, looking around. Where did she go?

Suddenly, she heard a noise from the closet, a thumping noise, like someone knocking on the door. Curious, she went over and opened the door. To her surprise, May was in there, seated on a chair. But she wasn't just sitting there: she was bound to the chair by ropes, her arms tied behind the chair, her legs tied to the chair's wooden legs, and her bandana was not on her head but over her mouth. She mumbled out to Misty something as she opened the door, wiggling around trying to get out of the chair, shaking her head.

"May!" Misty exclaimed as she rushed into the closet to help her. "Who did this to you?" She thought of something as she reached out to pull the bandana off of her mouth and then asked, "Was it Harley?"

"It sure was!" a voice said from behind her before May could respond, and she was suddenly grabbed, her arms pulled behind her back. It was Harley, who had hidden in the room when he heard Misty come, just after he finished tying up May.

"Harley!" Misty shouted, struggling to pull away from his grasp. "I thought you left!"

"I did," was his reply. "But I came back for the contest ribbon that should rightfully be mine."

"Let us go Harley!" May shouted, the gag removed from her person. She struggled to break free of the ropes that held her to the chair, rocking it slightly in the process.

"No can do, honey," Harley replied as he bound Misty's hands behind her back, despite Misty's struggles to get away. He shoved Misty onto her knees, grabbed a piece of cloth that was in the closet, tied a knot in the middle of it, and placed it into Misty's mouth, muffling her voice. He took more rope that he had and tied Misty's legs together at the ankles and knees, to keep her from getting back up. He then headed back to May and reapplied her bandana over her mouth that Misty so rudly removed. "If I did," he continued. "I wouldn't be able to keep my ribbon." He held up the ribbon that May had won in the contest, and placed it in his pocket. "It was a shame you had to find Misty," he said to May. "If you hadn't, I would have had the pleasure of beating you and winning this badge the way it should have been won."

The two girls mumbled incomprehensible words at him, Misty wriggling around on the ground and May shaking the chair she was in as they tried to get out, the two of them glaring at Harley with angry eyes.

Seeing this, Harley chuckled. "Oh, if looks could kill." He turned to leave the closet, brushing his purple hair back and waving to them, saying, "Ta-ta girls! Thanks again for the ribbon, dear May." He then shut the closet door, and also shut the door to the dorm itself, locking it as he left. The two girls were left in the closet, struggling and yelling muffled shouts in the darkness.


End file.
